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Friday, 29 January 2016

Remember all those puzzles and games hidden away in our attic? Well, brace yourself for a bit more childhood nostalgia because...

... we found a box of Fuzzy-Felt!

What fun this stuff was!

We spent hours and hours and hours as kids re-arranging these little felt pieces and using them to tell all kinds of stories.

Sadly they don't stick to the board any more, and some of the pieces are definitely showing their age.

It feels totally wrong to just throw them away though, so I'm thinking maybe I should make something from them? Maybe combine them with some plain felt and patterned papers to make some nostalgic cards to send to my friends? Hmmm...

I shall add the pieces to my box of "random things that might be useful for a crafty project sometime" (every crafter has a box like that, right??) and see if/when inspiration strikes!

Tuesday, 26 January 2016

I've been working on some tutorials (with lots of steps to photograph), and I'm also clearing out a whole bunch of craft supplies which all need sorting, measuring, weighing (and, of course, photographing) before I can add them to the destash sale over in my Etsy shop.

There'll be some colourful felt bundles...

... lots of fat quarters (and a few half yards, too)...

... an assortment of other fabric & felt pieces, and some other bits and bobs as well.

I'm calling this my "Laura looked at her huge stash of craft supplies and was brutally honest with herself about what she's actually going to use" sale. It includes things I bought years ago for projects which I've now totally abandoned (like my plan to make cushions... to match a sofa I now no longer own).

Instead of all this loveliness sitting neglected in my stash for several more years, I hope it can find new homes and finally get made into new things!

With luck, I should have all this crafty goodness listed in a couple of days. I'll announce here on my blog when the listings are live in my shop :)

Friday, 22 January 2016

Believe it or not, this week I celebrated the NINE YEAR anniversary of my blog.

In my very short first post back in 2007 I wrote that I hoped blogging would "encourage me to make more stuff" and it has certainly done that! I have made and blogged about a lot of crafty stuff over the past nine years, and my blog has helped me connect with loads of lovely, creative people and led to so many interesting and exciting opportunities for me and my business (including writing my books!).

Whether you're a new reader or a long-time one, or just a passer-by who has stumbled onto this post on your internet travels, thank you so much for reading! :)

Talking of things that would never have happened without my blog and the magic of the internet...

... one of my projects is currently featured in a magazine on the other side of the world: Australian Homespun (which is apparently the no.1 craft magazine in Australia! Exciting!).

It might be cold and dark and wet here at the moment, but in Australia it's the middle of summer so this issue is full of cheerful summer-y things like quilt patterns inspired by ice-creams and beach umbrellas, a round-up of sunny fabrics, and those charming Victorian bather dolls featured on the cover.

On page 14 you'll also find a trio of seashell-themed projects found on Pinterest, including the seashells I designed to accompany the sea creatures in my second book, Super-Cute Felt Animals.

Wednesday, 20 January 2016

It's been a busy few days here as I've been rushing round drawing, cutting, sticking, painting, photographing, editing, writing, etc to meet a deadline - fun, but slightly hectic, especially with the limited hours of winter daylight!

On my To Do list for the rest of this week (once I've done a post-deadline tidy-up of my studio and caught up with my emails) is taking and editing lots of photos.

I have some fun things to show you, plus lots of crafty supplies that I cleared out over the Christmas break which now need photographing and adding to my shop (I'll let you all know when they've been listed, of course).

I've also got a whole bunch of Nice Day Out photos to catch up on editing so I can share some more of my 2015 trips with you guys.

In the meantime, here are a few snaps from a visit to East London back in November:

Walking from point A to point B I couldn't resist taking a detour down some of the side streets I passed along the way.

... I started #Crafting365, doing something crafty each day and sharing a photo of it. This sadly didn't last the whole 365 days (or anywhere near it!) but it did lead to a highly enjoyable burst of creative energy this autumn and a whole flurry of making.

It's funny how often projects you've been working on for ages, all at different times, get revealed in a cluster like that. Anyone reading my blog in October must have thought I was some sort of crafty superwoman, but there were many months of keeping secrets and many, many hours of designing and drawing and stitching behind the scenes before that cluster of slightly over-excited posts saying "look what I made!!!!"

I also did a lot of simple knitting and not much else, so I decided to press pause on my #Crafting365 project. As a "professional crafty person" it was quite embarrassing to admit to going through a creative dry patch, but I always think it's important to be honest about these things and it was a huge relief to remove that (entirely self-created) "obligation" to be posting daily updates about my creative projects.

I ended up taking a break from social media and blogging over the holiday season and I found it very refreshing! I will continue to make stuff and share it online in 2016, of course, but at a pace that fits better with my life and the ebbs and flows of my creativity.

I hope you'll stick around to see what crafty projects the next twelve months will bring :)

Monday, 11 January 2016

Last year I set myself a de-stashing challenge but otherwise didn't give myself any specific goals for the year. Instead I wrote that I'd "just be focusing on working hard to grow my business and
doing my best to fill my year with designing, making, writing, cuppas
and catch ups with friends, decluttering, good books, tasty cake, happy post, Nice Days Out... and lots of other good stuff."

2015 was a little quiet but it was filled with all those things, so I am counting it as a success :)

I might not be a huge fan of New Year's Resolutions but I am a big fan of using this time of year to look back at the previous 12 months and take stock of the ups and downs, ready to re-focus and move forwards into the new year.

I'll be blogging about my Nice Days Out in a separate post (it was a busy year of travels!) but first, here's what I got up to on the crafty, bloggy side of things...

In JANUARY...

... I made a start on my "Use It or Lose It" destashing challenge: "to either get on and actually make stuff with the supplies in my stash, or admit to myself that I'm never going to use them for anything and just get rid of them."

I'd envisioned a year of making things inspired by random supplies in my crafty stash, with lots of blogging about the projects, but I didn't use up as many of my supplies as I'd hoped. I did clear out a lot of stuff though and my studio is looking all the better for it! The disconnect between my visions of all the projects I'd like to make and the reality of the amount of time I have available to actually make things is, of course, why I had all these unused craft supplies sitting around in the first place.

I also reviewed Ladies of Letterpress, got excited about the upcoming London Craft Week and lined up all my finished sky pompoms so I could share some photos of them in all their fluffy glory along with tips on making your own sky pompoms should you decide to record the weather in pompom form.

In MAY...

... I blogged about my childhood eraser collection! I wanted to keep a few special pieces with particular sentimental meaning and to record the whole collection before finding a new home for some or all of it. I ended up selling all but my few favourite pieces to someone with an eraser collection of their own (they were thrilled) and donating the money to a charity of my mum's choice (she'd bought most of the erasers for me when I was a kid, after all!). The money ended up going to a children's charity, so something once-beloved-but-no-longer-wanted from my childhood has ended up helping kids enjoy theirs. Perfect.

My shells found a new home with Polly, who is practically a mermaid so was the perfect person to take charge of these! She's already used some of the shells for a crafty project, which was awesome to see after so many years of them sitting forgotten and neglected in a box. My look back at my crafty 2015 will continue in part two, later this week...

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